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Beatrice Stöckli was killed by her kidnappers in Mali. Why was she not released like other Western prisoners?
The Basel missionary killed by Islamists (left) in a January 2014 photo in Mali. (File image)
It helped the poorest women in Mali who suffer from the Islamists’ advance in the Sahara. In the end, he succumbed to the chaos of war in the West African state of the Sahel. As a French journalist reported over the weekend, Basel missionary Beatrice Stöckli was killed by Islamist kidnappers about a month ago.
According to this source, the 59-year-old Protestant refused to participate in another movement, as kidnappers in the Sahara usually do, so as not to be pursued by Malian or French soldiers. The Islamists dragged the French woman outside at night, it was said; shortly thereafter a shot was heard.
The description originally came from his fellow hostage Sophie Pétronin, who, along with other people, including Stöckli, had been kidnapped by representatives of the Jamaat Nasr al-Islam (JNIM) terrorist organization in 2016. Pétronin, who not only has a French passport but also also a Swiss passport because her small aid organization “Aide à Gao” is based in Switzerland, she was released last Friday with two Italians and a Malian politician.
She returned to Paris, where she was received by President Emmanuel Macron. According to a Mauritanian journalist, ten million euros flowed in ransom. Furthermore, up to 200 imprisoned Islamists are said to have been released. Observers put it in perspective, including only a dozen actual jihadists; the other freedmen were mere sympathizers.
France regularly buys hostages for free
The mass release and the payment of a large ransom are still causing waves in Paris. Obviously, the French government was eager and willing to pay a heavy price for the release of the last French hostage, Pétronin. Italy is also said to have made a financial contribution.
It is an open secret that France in West Africa, unlike the US, for example, pays a ransom to buy from its compatriots. What is more surprising is that so many Islamists were released. France has been fighting a fierce battle against North African jihadists in Mali with 4,500 troops since 2013.
The role of the prominent Malian hostage Soumaïla Cissé is not very transparent either. The head of the “Union for the Republic and Democracy” (URD) was the head of the opposition and in the Malian capital Bamako he was considered a promising candidate for the presidency until he was kidnapped in March this year.
In August, however, the coup d’état by some officers created a new situation. Those who know do not rule out that this military coup has accelerated the release of Cissé.
Federal advisers have intervened “personally and repeatedly” with the Malian authorities
Like Cissé, the Swiss Stöckli was kidnapped in the desert city of Timbuktu. Islamists reportedly accused her of trying to convert Muslims to Christianity. However, one of the Italian hostages was also a priest. The question therefore remains why the Basel woman was murdered so shortly before her release.
The Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA) has been very concerned about the Basel missionary who wore a black hijab in propaganda videos, did he have to wear it? – and seemed very weak. Pétronin, however, had voluntarily converted to Islam.
Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis expressed “great concern” to the Stöckli family. In a statement, the FDFA stressed several times that it had done everything possible since Stöckli’s abduction in 2016 to obtain his release; Members of the Federal Council had campaigned “personally and repeatedly” with the Malian authorities.
But this commitment is not enough. Did the hijackers demand too much tangible material that Switzerland was unable or unwilling to deliver? The death of the Basel woman, who was kidnapped for a few days in 2012, remains a dark area. The statement now circulating that the kidnapped man refused to move again does not convince everyone involved.
In any case, Beatrice Stöckli will be remembered as a daring, perhaps careless, but extremely selfless helper to Malian women in need.
